In 2010, as Chief Officer of Dapoli Municipality, Ramdas Kokare decided that he would make Dapoli ‘plastic free’. In April 2015, he took over as Vengurla’s Chief Municipal Officer, driving the town’s exemplary sanitation schemes and waste disposal projects. Under his able leadership Vengurla Municipality was declared an Open Defecation Free (ODF) city in Maharashtra on 2nd October 2015.